The State of Indiana, perhaps in a desperate attempt to catch up with the serious hardcore crazies in competing red states such as Oklahoma, Texas, or Florida, recently passed HEA 1608, a piece of legislation whose actual wording is a bit of a mess but whose intent is quite clear – Stop Indiana Public School Teachers From Turning So Many Kids LGBTQ+!
The first provision prohibits school employees from providing “any instruction to a student in prekindergarten through grade 3 on human sexuality.” At least one educator has already challenged this bit with help from the ACLU, but so far hasn’t had much luck with that.
Sometimes you have to admit you’re not where you should be. Not doing what you wish you were doing. Or, if you are, it’s not working.
Blue Cereal spent the better part of 2016 desperately trying to impact state elections in a way that would promote public education. The “teacher caucus,” other pro-thinking-and-learning candidates, rational budget policies, and even a few state questions – completely out of my element and in over my head, I joined those of you trying desperately to wake up the rest of the household as the arsonists poured their gasoline and compared fancy lighters.
So I announced my intention to get out of Oklahoma. I no longer feel like part of the solution, but part of the problem. Every time we take a deep breath and go back into the classroom to make the best of it, we’re saying “Hey, you know what? Keep doing what you’re doing up there. There will be NO consequences. NO downside for you or your fiscal overlords. We’ll cover for you as best we can, as long as we can.”
And I couldn’t anymore.
I don’t have a job yet, but I’m now certified in Indiana (yeah, I know – long story) and only lack returning some sort of fingerprint kit to Ohio (again – story). I hope to be gone in June, shortly after the legislative session ends, the fifteenth revenue failure is announced, and – big shocker, here – it’s finally clear that YOU’RE NOT GETTING A RAISE BECAUSE THE “BETTER PLAN” IS FOR YOU TO SHUT UP AND KEEP ENABLING THE ABUSE OF YOUR KIDS BY THOSE IN POWER.
After a week or two of licking our wounds last November, I fully intended to get back to the stuff I actually like writing about. History stuff. Teaching stuff. Some political issues or current events, sure – but mostly the kinds of things that let us all believe for brief, delusional moments that something we’re doing might make a positive difference.
Unlike, say… political advocacy. Calling your state legislators. Educating the public. Voting.
*sigh*
Like I said – there’s still some bitterness. And apparently I’m “whiney.”
That’s OK. Maybe I am sometimes. I’m not always fair (although I try to be), or balanced, or rational, or calm. Hell, I’m not even always right – I’ve had to backtrack on several individuals and issues once I had more information.
But I do try to be genuine. Every opinion, every commentary, every stupid question I ask – totes for realsies. The pomp and snark and vanity – all legit. And my eternal, internal struggle between tortured self-loathing and being a pompous ass finds a perfect metaphor in Tornado Country.
When the 2017 legislative session started, I knew better than to pay attention. This was no longer my fight. But no one else was keeping up with the weekly onslaught of bills and discussions and votes and inanity. So I broke down and started detailing agendas for various committees that deal with edu-slation. I started pouring through the language, trying to make sense of statutes and amendments and the striking of titles. Posts like that take longer to write than just about any other kind, and the analytics say very few people even read them.
Obviously. Because election results.
Besides, they’re no fun to write. I’ve established a decent rapport with several legislators, but other than that the hours invested leave me with little more than a dirty feeling inside and a sense that I’ve sold out after swearing this stuff off on November 9th.
So it’s time to reboot. Again. That’s also OK – this was never about getting everything right the first time or pretending I have a coherent plan. I have enough style and damn sexy swagger that a few course corrections won’t stifle the overall mojo. Still, I thought the #11FF deserved some explanation – which is what this is.
For anyone who cares. Which you do. I love that about us.
For the next few weeks, I’ll be revisiting and reposting a few favorites of mine from past years, and trying to add a few more bits to other sections of the website. I’d also like to get back to shining light on the amazing edu-bloggery going on in #OklaEd and beyond – some of it heralded, much of it un.
Anyone who cares about education or anything else of lasting value in Oklahoma should be subscribed to the Tulsa World, and maybe even The Oklahoman, despite their abysmal editorial board. Also essential are Oklahoma Watch, OK Policy Institute, and The Frontier. These last three are free, but they need your financial support anyway. You’d be surprised how much internal warm-fuzzy you get supporting quality local journalism, so suck it up.
One last thing…
I may not be the only one who should be changing course. Many of you have contacted me privately to tell me about the jobs you’re pursuing outside of public education, or in the classroom but outside of the state. I applaud you for drawing those lines and saying “No more. I will not be an enabler of a system which is willfully, intentionally bad for kids immediately and for everyone else sooner than they realize.”
For the rest of you – the ones who are still teaching in Oklahoma – please understand that I do not judge you for following your calling or recognizing your commitments to family or logistics or whatever keeps you here. We do what we gotta do – I get it and I love you.
But please consider doing something, even if it seems crazy at the moment.
Go ahead and update your resume – you know, just in case something unexpected comes up. Take an hour or two over the weekend, then set aside a few days during Spring Break to pick a few states. Google their departments of education. Look for databases of job openings for which you may be at least partly qualified.
Talk to your spouse, or family, or besties, about options – you know, if you were to move. I’m not suggesting you turn in your keys with nowhere to go, just that you look at a few options. Just to be informed.
What would it take to get certified elsewhere? It might even be worth a few bucks to submit those forms, take those tests, just to know you have actual options come April. Don’t sell your house just yet – but maybe contact your realtor and ask what he or she thinks it’s worth these days.
It’s just preparation. Information. Foundation. In case you decide to change course. Keep in mind that kids in THOSE schools and THOSE states need a good teacher who knows their subject and cares about their lives ALSO. There’s no shortage of fields ripe for the harvest – you don’t have to stay on THIS plantation.
You’re not abandoning your calling if you do it somewhere else while forcing positive change here. And you’re not helping your kids by enabling the state to keep going the direction it’s going while you cover for them more and more each year, desperately wishing that THIS time you could explain to them why it matters or THIS time you’ll change them with your love or THIS time you’ll vote them out even though you know you won’t, you can’t, and that no matter how many signs you paint or how many chants you chant, the only real consequences being experienced are by you, and by your kids, because you’ll just keep trying to make it work so that they can just keep trying to make it not.
And they have all the money and power and popular support, because no one else sees it anymore except you and me, babe.
I’m still here, and I still adore you. But I’m changing course.
NOTE: Rep. John Montgomery was elected to represent HD-62 (Comanche, think “West of Lawton”) in 2014 and re-elected this past November. I consider him a friend to #oklaed and a decent guy all ’round. He’s also unexpectedly amusing when he’s mocking me privately on social media. Like, he’s REALLY good at it. That’s rare.
Not the mocking part – I get that a LOT. But being good at it – THAT’S a gift.
When I started my recent post on positive potential legislation sitting in the OK Legislative queue recently, I reached out to him along with several other legislators asking what I might be overlooking. Rep. Montgomery brought up the bills he’s discussing here, and explained them to me as clearly as could be expected one Twitter app to another. But I know my strengths, and economics-made-easy isn’t among them. I half-jokingly suggested he should just write a guest blog explaining it instead.
And he did.
I very much appreciate him taking the time to share this information and explanation here. I wish more of our elected leaders would be so communicative.
While I cannot endorse all of the messages Notorious B.I.G. puts out there, the name of this song seems fitting to a discussion on state finances. The underlying wisdom seems to hold true elsewhere: more than a few articles have been written pointing out that up to a third of lottery winners end up declaring bankruptcy.
I wish I could make a blog post about state finance more exciting. Nobody likes talking about checkbook balancing, or for the hip young readers out there, paying your bills with Venmo or Google Wallet. No, we cannot just pop open a GoFundMe and plug our budget holes, and yes I have tried.
Much like those lottery winners, Oklahoma has also in a way won the economics equivalent of the winning numbers by way of our oil and gas resources. Unfortunately, we as as a state have similar problems to many winners – just one a larger scale. Mental health, divorce, tensions with others, and… trouble keeping our finances in order. The Economist has written rather extensively on what could be termed the “resource curse.”
In my humble opinion, it is time we turned our Achilles heel into our greatest blessing.
Fortunately, there is a way to insure permanent investments into education and put ourselves in an incredible position if we make the long-term commitment. I realize in a day and age when some folks my age are setting up dates at the swipe of a screen, that “long term” might be somewhat of a foreign concept for some. However, if you talk to more than a handful of my constituents and I suspect many Oklahomans, a long-term plan and vision is what they want most out of state government and other community leaders.
For the better part of two years, I have been watching and analyzing how our revenue streams function, as well as considering what other states (or countries) do that might make an improvement for Oklahomans. One idea is to set up a permanent fund or an endowment or two that would take in some level of revenue and grow large enough that interest from the fund can replace or eliminate our reliance on volatile revenue sources, as well as help stabilize the way we approach other revenue as well. Ideally, this would have a tangential effect of unleashing the spirit and ingenuity of Oklahomans.
“Whoa whoa whoa now, don’t hurt yourself, Mr. Big Talk,” I can almost hear you saying. “We’re on to you legislator types and your fancy-but-often-bewildering plans!”
Backing it up a bit, if we carry our personal finance analogy forward, we could say that we need to plan for retirement primarily from our oil and gas tax revenue, but secondarily from other potential tax sources. You know, diversify.
If I had a dollar every time I heard, read, and said “we need to diversify our state economy,” this discussion would be unnecessary because the state would be LOADED. Unfortunately, that’s not how it works.
Another problem with “diversify our state economy,” is that there is no big red “that was easy” button we can push and all of the diversity happens. Many very intelligent, caring, and tireless legislators and community leaders before me have made significant efforts in this direction – and with a high degree of success. Contrary to what many might believe, this most recent downturn could have been much worse for many Oklahomans.
The State Chamber of Oklahoma estimates that the oil and gas industry makes up roughly 13-15% of our state economy. However, state government reliance on tax revenue from the oil and gas industry can reach as high as 25% of state revenue.
Houston, we have a problem.
If you want us to try to take the bumps out of that chart above, I would refer you to HB2763 from last year. Fortunately, 2763 passed and we will stabilize that revenue in future years. http://www.oklegislature.gov/BillInfo.aspx?Bill=HB2763&Session=1600
If you think we also need a long-term vision and plan, then keep reading.
Fortunately for us, many states and several countries have trail-blazed the idea of saving sizeable amounts of what may not be an indefinite source of revenue and using the interest earned from investments, equities, real estate, etc., as revenue. Many countries like Norway, almost every country on the Arabian Peninsula that can pull oil from the sand with a straw, and most recently Israel, have set up a savings plan like this. Norway is sitting on just shy of $1 trillion in their fund, depending on which way the markets are going and if there’s a notion of divesting from the latest company to militarize farts. Saudi Arabia has been eating some of its $700 billionish fund in its global War on Fracking.
In the United States, 8 of the 9 states that rely heavily on oil or gas severance/gross production taxes have a permanent fund, endowment, or major savings plan for that revenue. I would not be writing this if Oklahoma were one of those 8.
North Dakota has become probably the most famous and envied. Voters there approved setting aside 30% of their oil and gas revenue into a Legacy Fund in 2010. That fund has grown to over $4 billion due to an oil production explosion of literally ten-fold over the past decade (compared to doubling in Oklahoma). They also set aside 5% of the revenue into an education endowment which has been growing since the late 1990s. The interest from the fund goes to schools, and thus it’s not hard to see how the ten-fold production increase translated to double digit education spending increases there.
They did not establish how the Legacy Fund would be used, which has caused some debate given the energy downturn. The state spent its $750 million rainy day fund to shore up against what we have called “revenue failure” here: that spending was coupled with a 3-4% across the board cut as well. This next two-year budget does not look much better for them either.
The state that has not received much attention in this regard is Alaska. 90% of state revenue there comes from the energy industry, so they were talking about $3-4 billion shortfalls most recently. However, they are also sitting on a $50 billion Permanent Fund that is used to generate interest and kick out a couple grand to each man, woman, and child in the state. They, by the way, have a $10 billion Rainy Day Fund that they technically owe $3-4 billion to because paying the fund back is required. There are some hot debates going on in that state over budget too of course, but the difference of position they are in financially is not by any accident
We should take what these other places have done, and put Oklahoma at the forefront of state financial dynamism. This year, I have introduced HB1400 and HB1401 to do just that.
HB1401 is primarily geared toward what I have spent most of this post talking about doing: setting aside a significant part of our oil and gas gross production tax revenue into what would be called the Legacy Fund. 20% of future revenue would be dedicated in this way. The fund would have subfunds for common education and higher education, who currently receive up to roughly the first $145 million of this revenue (which has actually caused some issues in the most recent downturn, but that’s a different topic). That would be directed into endowments that would become large enough that modest investment earnings could replace that revenue, permanently within about 10-12 years. Ideally, we would continue putting some part into these sub endowments after then, and can redirect another part of the funding either for more savings or bolstering current spending at the time.
HB1400 establishes a Vision Fund. It is aimed toward a position Alaska finds itself in: not levying the traditional, major state level taxes on income and sales. Once fully implemented, Oklahoma would be perhaps the second state to be in a position to eliminate a major tax source while providing a potent source of funding for education, research and development, and a group that was created after the 1980s oil bust called Oklahoma Center for Science and Technology (OCAST) – a group whose basic mission is the diversification of our state’s economy. We will build this fund through a structure in our state budget process which ends up leaving cash on the table to be appropriated, in addition to taking in a crude version of what could be called “micro-financing” where we will take a barely noticeable fraction of revenue each year and set it aside.
This plan will require a high degree of resolve, and it likely requires shielding from short term whims and thinking that have held our state back. We must rally behind a Vision or we leave no Legacy. Let’s not throw away our shot.
I’m not known for the sunshine I spread or my rainbow-themed unicorn farm. I’m surrounded by edu-bloggers in Oklahoma and beyond who are both smarter and more experienced than myself, and I’m under no illusions about the role I play.
But I do believe in being pragmatic. Having spent most of 2016 burning energy I didn’t have promoting the so-called ‘Teacher Caucus’ and related issues in #OKElections16, and having had slightly less than zero impact (the pro-education newbies who won were the handful I’d never gotten around to writing about), I’d like to try to find approaches that might, you know… work. Or at the very least, play against type – like Daniel Radcliffe.
I don’t want to be naked horse guy, though – but it’s like I’ve been naked horse guy and now I want to be a wizard…
This has gone way off course, hasn’t it?
The 2017 Oklahoma Legislature officially convenes on February 6th. The rules vary between houses, but for the most part bills have to be submitted a couple of weeks ahead of time.
Which is now.
Should you go poking around on oklegislature.gov or openstates.org/ok, you’ll discover a wide variety of bills and resolutions and thinly veiled cries for help. A few warnings should you decide to venture forth unprepared…
“Shell Bills” are a thing. Because State Representatives have to submit bills ahead of time, and have a limited number allowed, it’s not uncommon for them to throw together something filled with essentially meaningless language as a placeholder of sorts. Sometimes these end up being fleshed out with details related to their working title, other times they simply wither on the statutory vine. Occasionally they end up being bills about entirely different things altogether. It’s a misleading quirk of the system.
Every year brings a ridiculousnumber of bills fetishizing guns, proposing draconian punishments for abortion, fighting back against perceived abuses by the federal government, etc. Most of these never make it through a committee – they’re just there so demagogues can appease angry and/or ignorant voters in their respective districts. These are sometimes referred to as “red meat” bills.
Bills aren’t automatically put before the entire House or Senate. Some die right there in their sponsor’s arms, like buried flowers. Others are assigned to a related committee, where they may or may not be discussed, may or may not be approved, and may or may not continue their journey “I’m Just A Bill” style. House versions are reconciled with Senate versions, etc., until a small handful go to the Governor to sign – or not.
Just because something’s listed here doesn’t mean it’s going to be a thing. Don’t get your hopes up or expect your legislator to have the slightest idea what you’re talking about should you call and ask them to support one of these.
And yet, that’s largely why I’ve gathered them here – so you can call, and email, and bring them up at meetings. So we can have things to support and not just things to oppose. So we can bring solutions and not just –
Oh god, maybe I DO have a unicorn farm. Is that Celine Dion playing in the background? Has Meghan Loyd hacked my account?!
Whatever my frustrations – and they are legion – I think we can do a better job this session of starting off positive. Of demonstrating that we can be informed and rational and not all racist thugs like Rick Cobb.
Sorry – inside joke. Rick is not a racist thug. See, what happened was…
I’m off course again. Sorry. Legislation is boring.
Here are a few things worth looking at, asking about, and possibly promoting as we march boldly into the fray. Please feel free to add anything I’ve overlooked in the comments, or email me. Heck, write a guest blog about some of them if you like.
Light is all we have.
Pay Raise Bills
The Tulsa World recently did a nice slideshow highlighting some bills which caught their attention, including a variety of teacher raise proposals. Because I’m still rather skeptical of the chances of ANY of these passing, I’ll just share the highlights here:
HB 1115 – Representative Avery Frix (R), HD 13
This would prohibit the state legislature from passing new mandates on public schools unless they’re willing to fund them as well. Crazy kid – clearly Frix is new here!
HB 1279 – Representative Jason Dunnington (D), HD88
This would return income tax rates to what they were a little over a decade ago for the state’s highest earners. It would also remove the Oklahoma Capital Gains Deduction which was enacted in 2004 and benefits the top sliver of Oklahoma’s wealthiest almost exclusively.
Dunnington argues this would generate more than $500 million in recurring revenue – recurring revenue, not the kind you get by selling grandma’s car at the auction. He’s quick to mention teacher pay as something that revenue might be useful to fund.
It strikes me as a long-shot – it will be smeared as a “tax increase” – but for the first time in a while, legis seem to be talking seriously about meaningful ways to get un-broke, so who knows? Two of the bill’s three sections simply close existing tax loopholes – and that’s something we all at least claim to support.
In any case, this is a good one to get behind and call YOUR representative in support of.
HB 1351 – Representative Monroe Nichols (D), HD72
Currently, the Oklahoma Higher Learning Access Program (aka “Oklahoma’s Promise”) helps pay for college for students who meet basic requirements in High School and who fall below a certain income level. There’s an exception made for military families (who tend to move around a great deal) – their kids qualify regardless. This would add a similar exception for teachers’ kids.
It would be a simple, almost revenue-neutral way to show some love to educators. I’m just saying.
HB 1352 – Representative Monroe Nichols (D), HD72
Since 2011, Oklahoma has had the “Oklahoma Equal Opportunity Education Scholarship Act.” Essentially this allows individuals or businesses to donate money to a ‘scholarship fund’ which is disbursed as a sort of voucher (i.e., “scholarship”) to parents who’d like their child in private school. These individuals and businesses get a substantial tax break on moneys so donated.
This bill would add the option of donating money under similar conditions with the same limits and tax benefits to an endowment to fund the salaries of public school teachers. I’m not clear on how this works in terms of disbursement, but the idea amuses me to no end. It’s brilliant.
HB 1760 – Representative Katie Henke (R), HD71
Students in Kindergarten through Third Grade are monitored regularly for reading proficiency. Students in Third Grade take a reading exam (often referenced as the RSA – Reading Sufficiency Act) to determine whether or not they’ll advance to Fourth Grade.
Currently, students who do not pass this exam are not automatically promoted to Fourth Grade. A small team of the child’s parent(s), teacher, and a school reading specialist or similar professional meet to decide whether it makes more sense to retain the child another year or move them to Fourth Grade with additional reading support. The idea is that some kids just need more time to marinate where they are, while others should progress but with increased support.
This compromise ends this year and retention could become mandatory (no discretion left to the parents and teachers) unless this or something like it passes this session.
This bill is very similar to HB 2158 sponsored by Representative Jadine Nollan (R), HD66, and SB 123 sponsored by Senator J.J. Dossett (D), SD34. That’s neither unusual nor bad; it suggests widespread interest in making this happen. They can work out any minor differences once things are rolling.
HB 2154 – Representative Jadine Nollan (R) – HD66
This would continue altering the rubrics and algorithms of the Oklahoma A-F School Shaming System. It has lots of words in it and bunches of stuff in current law which it would cut, so I make no promises about my full understanding, but the gist of it seems to be to dial back the more abusive elements of A-F, citing the flexibility allowed by the ESSA.
It retains the A-F report itself, which I despise, but the innards seem to be gradually reworked in order to make the package less loathsome. I’d speculate this is a pragmatic compromise on the part of pro-education leadership with those who simply insist on looking tough on those damn teachers. The fact that no one will go on record with me to confirm this pretty much convinces me that’s the case. But, that’s just me – speculating.
HB 2158 – Representative Jadine Nollan (R), HD66
See HB 1760 above.
SB 2 – Senator J.J. Dossett (D) – SD34
This eliminates the U.S. History state test currently required of all high school students in Oklahoma. Now, we all know what’s going to happen. We cry out that there’s too much testing and it doesn’t do what proponents claim it does and why can’t we have fewer tests OMG OMG OMG! Then, someone suggests eliminating a test from the pantheon and we panic in reverse – ARE YOU SAYING MY SUBJECT ISN’T IMPORTANT ENOUGH TO TEST?! WHY DO YOU HATE AMERICA?!
This doesn’t remove U.S. History from the “stuff schools are required to teach” pile. Like Oklahoma History and American Government, it’s still a requirement – just not a state test. Calm the hell down.
On a side note, I think this one has at least some potential to erupt into the most fascinating patriotism-pissing contest if someone decides to go after it as anti-American or some such nonsense. Not saying it will – certainly not suggesting it should – but we have a weird relationship with history in this state. We don’t like it really, but we like it in theory and want to pretend we care about it deeply. It’s our arm-candy third wife, as it were.
SB 9 – Senator J.J. Dossett (D) – SD34
This would eliminate the straight-party voting option from Oklahoma ballots. That’s not directly related to public education, but it would do education a huge favor if voters were expected to at least look at the names before them and consider whether or not they know anything about that person’s positions or record before checking that box.
I know taking ten minutes to get informed before voting sucks, but we can try.
Voters elected and re-elected by substantial margins legislators openly hostile to public education in November 2016. They then turned around and told pollsters that their NUMBER ONE CONCERN for the upcoming legislature is supporting public education. They’re either lying or ignorant. I assume they’re lying – they want to sound like good people when polled, so they pretend they give a damn. This bill presumes they’re merely ignorant, and don’t see the connection. It doesn’t promise they won’t still vote straight ticket, but they have to take a few more tiny steps suggesting they mean it.
SB 123 – Senator J.J. Dossett (D) – SD34
See HB 1760 above.
SB 124 – Senator J.J. Dossett (D) – SD34
This would prohibit public money from being used, directly or indirectly, to support private schools (w/ the Lindsey Nicole Henry Scholarships for Students with Disabilities being a specific exception). This is obviously an effort to erect a roadblock to future voucher bills, and difficult to argue with it as a matter of principle.
SJR 32 – Senator J.J. Dossett (D) – SD34
This would put to a vote of the people a change in the Oklahoma Constitution which would require appropriates for public education to be made separately from general appropriations, and first. Man, give a guy an unexpected special election win and a year later he’s getting all saucy!
I’m sure there are some I’ve missed, and I know there are several I didn’t miss but am not sure how to explain (since I barely understand them myself). Feel free to add those you come across in the Comments below.
I’m still skeptical anything good is coming, but that doesn’t change our obligation to try. Be prepared, be firm but polite, and for golly gosh jeepers – BE INVOLVED.
Sometimes you have to admit you’re not where you should be. Not doing what you wish you were doing. Or, if you are, it’s not working. 
Much like those lottery winners, Oklahoma has also in a way won the economics equivalent of the winning numbers by way of our oil and gas resources. Unfortunately, we as as a state have similar problems to many winners – just one a larger scale. Mental health, divorce, tensions with others, and… trouble keeping our finances in order. The Economist has 
Backing it up a bit, if we carry our personal finance analogy forward, we could say that we need to plan for retirement primarily from our oil and gas tax revenue, but secondarily from other potential tax sources. You know, diversify.
North Dakota has become probably the most famous and envied. Voters there approved setting aside 30% of their oil and gas revenue into a Legacy Fund in 2010. That fund has grown to over $4 billion due to an oil production explosion of literally ten-fold over the past decade (compared to doubling in Oklahoma). They also set aside 5% of the revenue into an education endowment which has been growing since the late 1990s. The interest from the fund goes to schools, and thus it’s not hard to see how the ten-fold production increase translated to double digit education spending increases there.
